So Percussion

American Patterns

Of their last appearance at Carnegie Hall, The New Yorker music critic Alex Ross proclaimed that it was "one of the more entertaining and fulfilling evenings I've had in recent years ... I would have happily seen it five more times." For more than a decade, So Percussion has redefined the modern percussion ensemble as a flexible, omnivorous entity, pushing its voice to the forefront of American musical culture. The group brings its adventurous spirit and “exhilarating blend of precision and anarchy, rigor, and bedlam” (The New Yorker) to a program that includes a major work they commissioned from David Lang, as well as the world premiere of a new work by composer-guitarist Bryce Dessner.

This concert is part of Late Nights at Zankel Hall and My Time, My Music.

Performers

Program

BRYCE DESSNER Music for Wood and Strings (World Premiere, commissioned by Carnegie Hall)

MATMOS so-called remix (World Premiere)

SO PERCUSSION/MATMOS Carnegie Double Music (World Premiere)

DAVID LANG the so-called laws of nature

Event Duration

The printed program will last approximately 90 minutes with no intermission.

Bios

So Percussion

For more than a decade, Sō Percussion has redefined the modern percussion ensemble as a
flexible, omnivorous entity, pushing its voice to the forefront of American musical
culture. Sō's career now encompasses 13 albums, tours throughout the US and around the
world, a dizzying array of collaborative projects, several ambitious educational programs,
and a steady output of its own music.

When the founding members of Sō Percussion convened as graduate students at the Yale
School of Music, their initial goal was to present an exciting repertoire of pieces by
20th-century luminaries such as John Cage, Steve Reich, and Iannis Xenakis. An encounter
with composer David Lang yielded their first commissioned piece, the so-called laws of
nature. Sō has since commissioned some of the greatest American composers of our time
to build a new repertoire, including Steve Reich, Steven Mackey, Paul Lansky, and Martin
Bresnick.

Since 2006, the members of Sō Percussion have been composing in their own right for the
group and for others. In 2012, their third evening-length work Where (we) Live
premiered at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, traveling to the Brooklyn Academy of
Music's 30th Next Wave Festival and the Myrna Loy Center in Helena, Montana. Where (we)
Live followed on the heels of 2009's Imaginary City, a fully staged sonic
meditation on urban soundscapes. In 2011, Sō was commissioned by Shen Wei Dance Arts to
compose Undivided Divided, a 30-minute work conceived for Manhattan's massive Park
Avenue Armory.

Sō Percussion's artistic circle extends beyond its contemporary classical roots. The group
first expanded this boundary with the prolific duo Matmos on their 2010 combined album
Treasure State. Further projects and appearances with Wham City shaman Dan Deacon;
legendary drummer Bobby Previte; jam band kings Medeski, Martin, and Wood; and Wilco's
Glenn Kotche drew the circle even wider. In 2011, the rock band The National invited Sō to
open one of its sold-out shows at New York's Beacon Theatre.

Sō's recording of the so-called laws of nature became the cornerstone of its
self-titled debut album on the Cantaloupe Music label in 2004. In subsequent years, this
relationship blossomed into a growing catalogue of exciting albums. In 2011, Sō released
six new albums, ranging from its definitive recording of Steve Reich's Mallet
Quartet-composed for the group in 2009-on Nonesuch Records to its collaborative album
Bad Mango with jazz trumpeter Dave Douglas on Greenleaf Music.

Sō Percussion is heavily involved in mentoring young musicians. Its members are
co-directors of a new percussion department at the Bard College Conservatory of Music. This
top-flight undergraduate program enrolls each student in a double-degree (bachelor of music
and bachelor of arts) course in the conservatory and Bard College, equipping them with
elite conservatory training and a broad liberal arts education. In 2009, the members
created the annual Sō Percussion Summer Institute on the campus of Princeton University.
The institute is an intensive two-week chamber music seminar for college-age
percussionists, featuring the four members of Sō as faculty in rehearsal, performance, and
discussion of contemporary music for students from around the world. During the 2011-2012
academic year, Sō was an ensemble-in-residence at Princeton University, teaching seminars
and collaborating extensively with talented student composers.

Sō has been presented at many of the major venues in the US, including Carnegie Hall,
Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Stanford Lively Arts, and Texas Performing Arts.
In addition, a recent residency at the Barbican in London, as well as tours to Western
Europe, South America, Russia, and Australia have brought Sō Percussion international
acclaim.

Bryce Dessner

Bryce Dessner is a composer, guitarist, and curator based in New York City, best known as
guitarist for the acclaimed rock band The National. Dessner has also received widespread
acclaim as a composer and guitarist for the improvising new music quartet Clogs. He has
performed and recorded with some of the world's most creative musicians, including
songwriters Sufjan Stevens, Bon Iver, Antony Hegarty, and Sonic Youth guitarist Lee
Ranaldo; composers Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Nico Muhly, and Michael Gordon; contemporary
ensembles Kronos Quartet and eighth blackbird; and visual artist Matthew Ritchie.

As a composer, his recent commissions include Murder Ballads for eighth blackbird
and an evening-length collaboration with the Brooklyn Youth Chorus that celebrates the
artistic endeavors of the Black Mountain College. In November 2013, ANTI- records releases
the album Aheym that features the first recordings of Dessner's compositions,
performed by the Kronos Quartet.

In 2012, Dessner composed a collaborative song cycle with Sufjan Stevens and Nico Muhly
called Planetarium. Recent commissions include a Jerome Foundation grant from the
American Composers Forum and The Kitchen (New York City) for a concert of his music, a
commission from Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (Vienna) to create a 40-minute spatial
sound work for The Morning Line, and a string orchestra composition for the
Amsterdam Sinfonietta entitled St. Carolyn by the Sea. Dessner also recently
composed two string quartets-Aheym and Tenebre-for the Kronos
Quartet.

Dessner is the founder and artistic director of the acclaimed MusicNOW Festival in
Cincinnati, Ohio, which presents its ninth season in 2014. He is also a co-founder and
owner of the Brassland record label, home to a diverse group of artists who include the
experimental rock duo Buke and Gase, composer Nico Muhly, and cellist Erik Friedlander. In
addition, he and his brother Aaron produced an extensive AIDS charity compilation, Dark
Was the Night, for the Red Hot Organization, which featured David Byrne, Arcade Fire,
Sufjan Stevens, Sharon Jones, Cat Power, Grizzly Bear, My Morning Jacket, and Spoon.
Dessner is a graduate of Yale College and the Yale School of Music. He currently serves on
the board of The Kitchen in New York City and is composer-in-residence at Muziekgebouw
Frits Philips Eindhoven.

Matmos

Currently based in Baltimore, the Matmos duo formed in San Francisco during the mid-1990s
and self-released its debut album in 1997. Marrying the conceptual tactics and noisy
textures of object-based musique concrète to a rhythmic matrix rooted in
electronic pop music, Matmos quickly became known for its highly unusual sound sources:
amplified crayfish nerve tissue, chin implant surgery, contact microphones on human hair,
rat cages, tanks of helium, a cow uterus, human skulls, snails, whoopee cushions, balloons,
latex fetish clothing, rhinestones, Polish trains, insects, life-support systems, the sound
of a frozen stream thawing in the sun, and a five-gallon bucket of oatmeal. These raw
materials are manipulated into surprisingly accessible forms, and often supplemented by
traditional musical instruments played by the duo's large circle of friends and
collaborators.

Since its debut, Matmos have released more than eight albums, including
Quasi-Objects (1998), The West (1998), A Chance to Cut Is A Chance to
Cure (2001), The Civil War (2003), The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of A
Beast (2006), and Supreme Balloon (2008). In 2001, Matmos was asked to
collaborate with the Icelandic singer Björk on her Vespertine album, and
subsequently embarked on two world tours as part of her band. In addition to musical
collaborations with artists and ensembles such as Antony, Sō Percussion, David Tibet,
Rachel's, Zeena Parkins, and the Princeton Laptop Orchestra, Matmos has also collaborated
with a wide range of artists across disciplines, from visual artist Daria Martin (on the
soundtrack to her film Minotaur) to playwright Young Jean Lee (for her play The
Appeal) to Berlin-based choreographer Ayman Harper. Most recently, Matmos has been
part of the ensemble for the Robert Wilson production The Life and Death of Marina
Abramović, featuring Marina Abramović, Antony, and Willem Dafoe. Its album, The
Marriage of True Minds, released this year on Thrill Jockey Records.

Pre-concert

Pre-concert talk starts at 8:00 PM in Zankel Hall with featured composers David Lang and Bryce Dessner and members of So Percussion in conversation with Jeremy Geffen, Director of Artistic Planning, Carnegie Hall.

At a Glance

Tonight's concert features a distinctive strain of American experimentalism as it manifests in Sō Percussion's current work. To this day, the best description we have is the composer Steve Mackey's phrase "American crackpot tradition."

This approach places less emphasis on the perpetually shifting dynamics of musical style and politics—although it certainly demonstrates awareness of those trends.

The more meaningful emphasis is upon the joy and exhilaration of trying new ideas. Over the last 100 years, percussion music has provided an exciting outlet for composers who see themselves as inventors, tinkerers, even musical frontiers(wo)men.

They may be mavericks and misfits, or they might be famous rock musicians and heads of prestigious music departments. What matters is this common spirit.

The vast majority of the sounds you hear tonight will be on instruments that were created, built, and/or foraged specifically for each new piece. Bryce Dessner's "chordsticks" in Music for Wood and Strings reimagines the electric guitar as a hammered dulcimer, David Lang's tuned flowerpots and teacups reframe ordinary objects as musical instruments, and M.C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel of Matmos help us transmute the natural into the digital.

—Adam Sliwinski

The Fast Forward series of concerts is sponsored by Ernst & Young LLP.

Lead support for Carnegie Hall commissions is provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

David Lang is the holder of the 2013–2014 Richard and Barbara Debs Composer's Chair at Carnegie Hall.